The panel on creativity and Judaism went well Sunday at Temple Shalom in Newton. It was well attended. I was on a panel with Michael Bogdanow, a painter, and Hankus Netsky. I have been a fan of his music for years. He was very important in the klezmer revival and is an extremely talented musician and composer. We even sold some books. When we got out of the panel, the sun was setting in a spectacular gold, fuchsia and scarlet display. It gets dark so early and so quickly we only had time to enjoy it for perhaps seven minutes. When we got home, the cats were angry and hungry in equal measures. Fortunately for our supper we had many leftovers from the sumptuous feast at Byblos Friday evening. Woody had picked salad before we left so we were able to eat fairly quickly, by seven. Tuesday my friend Janet came over. Her husband Tom died recently after a long period of treatment for cancer. She took care of him throughout, stayed with him at Beth Israel. Then she had many relatives and their spouses to feed and house and deal with for days and days. She was exhausted and wanting silence, peace, time to heal, but she liked coming over to talk. Then Wednesday my previous assistant Melenie came for a visit. She is now living in Hadley in the Pioneer Valley. She had hoped to get a lot of writing done but has been too busy on various jobs to return to her own work. It was great to see her. She was more than an assistant for me. We became very close and did many things together besides secretarial work. She was a sort of ersatz daughter for me. I read at her wedding to Jay. She is going to return in December for our annual Solstice party and will help me cook that day. I gave her a necklace I had gotten at the local flea market that I thought she would like. I can usually tell what Melenie will enjoy; our tastes are close enough. Because of all the socializing, I haven’t done much writing this week. Only two poems all week. We had some welcome rain after our second frost of the season. Still quite mild. I still haven’t dug up the summer bulbs, dahlias, acidanthera, calla lilies. I should get to that this weekend. I no longer grow gladiola. I decided I don’t really like them. I have to mulch my three tree peonies too this weekend and Woody has to begin putting the gardens to sleep, manuring, liming and plowing them. His ordered snow blower just came. After last winter, we decided we finally had to get one. He was digging by hand all the way down the hill to the street and then up from the house to the generator and the oil tank just about every day. We’ll see how the snowblower works for us. We have a gravel drive. Willow and Mingus are entranced by the bird feeders that are hung on each side of the diningroom – that’s a very sunny room with windows on three sides. There’s a long planter on the ledge beneath the windows on the south side. I plant catgrass in it. But now the grass is all flattened because Willow loves to lie in it and watch the birds at the feeder just outside. She also likes to climb into the bay tree and look out. At first when she started climbing into the long planter and the big container where the bay tree grows, I thought she might think they were litter boxes, but no. She likes the feel of dirt and they are good vantage points. She remains the happiest cat I’ve ever had. She purrs whenever you touch her and goes around with her tail straight up like a furry flagpole.